Home Economics
by BandGeek99
Summary: Is this one of those dumb parenting project stories? Absolutely! Watch as the author plays with the lives of these teenagers as they struggle to make sense of their relationsips while Insanity pays a visit. Taiora and more, so R and R!
1. Chapter 1

Home Economics – by BandGeek99

Home Economics – by BandGeek99

**Hello again! I'm awful, I know, but this idea has been nagging me for the past few weeks and I decided to do something about it! It's not a very original idea, but, well, I'll make it my own! It has hip, young teachers (what a horrible phrase!), cute soccer guys who totally crush on you and make rock stars jealous, and really scary waiters! Boo yeah!**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nobody but the teacher, Miss Hawthorne, the classmates, and the other various original characters that show up in between.**

**DEDICATION: Dedicated to Becka who helped me through Home Ec. (I would have hurt myself with the sewing machine or seam ripper or something…) and dedicated to Kenny, whom I love very much. (In a non-homosexual way, that is!)**

**Enjoy!**

**000**

**(Sora's POV)**

I slid into my seat and groaned. Today was the first day of the semester, meaning that we were getting a new elective.

That means we would have to endure one new class a semester. For example, you might have art and health for one semester, and shop and home economics second semester.

It was November 10th. Almost Christmas time. And to screw it up, we had Home Ec. Urgh.

"Hey, Sor," my friend Bella said, sliding into the chair next to mine at the low wooden table.

I waved unenthusiastically, slumping over my small pile of books.

"You don't seem too happy today do you."

It wasn't a question. Bella always somehow knew what I was thinking.

I nodded. "Stupid home ec. I hate Ms. Thomas."

"Didn't you hear? We have a new teacher."

I perked up at this. "Really?"

As if on cue, a young woman of maybe twenty-eight years old entered the room. She had a petite stature with blonde hair wrapped into a bun and deep brown eyes and was dressed in a baby blue hoodie, a pair of black pants, and a pair of black and blue Vans. A pair of rectangular, olive green glasses adorned her face and she had a pair of earrings that had letters hanging down reading "ROCK".

I had a good feeling about her.

The door burst open and Tai stood there panting with Cam panting behind him. They were such idiots…

"Nice of you to join us," the new teacher said. "Please sit at the table with these two lovely ladies." She pointed to me and Bella.

We each exchanged confused glances as the boys sat down on the opposite sound of the table.

"My name is Alice Hawthorne, and I'm your new Consumer Ed teacher. I think I'll start off the class with attendance."

Tai, Matt, and I exchanged glances.

"Um, is… Cameron here?"

"Yeah, Cam-er-own!" one of the guys said in a low voice.

Cam raised his hand. "Could you call me Cam? Cameron sounds kinda dorky."

"Sure." Miss Hawthorne made a note on her list. "Is Isabelle here?"

Bella raised her hand. "Bella, please."

"Okay, Bella. Is Taichi here?"

"Tai, por favor."

I groaned. Tai took Spanish and English and enjoyed switching between languages.

"Si, Senor. No problemo." Apparently this teacher was bilingual. "How about Yamato?"

"Could you call me Matt?"

"Of course, Matt. How about Lianne?"

"Present and accounted for," the girl piped happily.

"Good. Gregory?"

"Greg, if you will."

"Okay, Greg. How about Diana?"

"Here."

"Sora?"

"I'm here," I said, raising my hand.

She smiled. "Nice to see you. Are Mimi and Hikari here?"

"Both here," Kari said, "But could you call me Kari instead of Hikari?"

"Sure, I will. Is Takeru here?"

"TK, if you will," the blonde said, imitating Greg.

Greg narrowed his eyes at Matt's little brother, but Miss Hawthorne didn't notice. "Are Ken and Daisuke here?"

"Yeah, but call me Davis, Daisuke makes me feel like that baseball player."

"Okay. How about Miyako and Tiffany?"

"Call me Yolie."

"Here! Tiffany is fine with me, but you can call me Tiff if you'd like."

"How about Dylan?"

He raised a hand and said quietly, "Present."

"Good, we're all here. Now, this quarter, we'll be starting a new project." She placed her class list onto her desk and picked up a paper grocery bag. "Before I explain what we'll be doing, could all of the boys please follow me into the supply closet for a minute?"

Tai, Cam, Bella, and I all exchanged bewildered glances, but the guys slowly rose out of their chairs and followed Miss Hawthorne into the closet.

**(Tai's POV)**

We followed Miss Hawthorne into the cramped room filled to the brim with sewing stuff for the freshmen.

She held up the paper bag that had been sitting on her desk. "Okay, boys. For this project, I'm letting you all choose a special ring and you are going to ask one of the girls to 'marry' you. I'll need to ask you each who you're going to propose to after this class period, which you will use to get to know everyone and decide. At the end, I'd like you to stay back and tell me who you've chosen, and by tomorrow, I'd like all of you to have proposed."

TK and Davis were giving each other death glares, clearly battling silently for Kari.

Matt sighed and whispered to me, "As much as I'd love to propose to Sora, I think I'll have to go with your sister to make sure TK and Davis don't kill each other."

The news about Sora hadn't sunken in yet, only the stuff about Kari. "Only if you promise to treat her right."

Matt spat on the palm of his hand and held it out for me to shake. "Deal."

I spat on my own hand and we shook on it.

"I think I'll have Tai go first," the teacher said, giving me a thoughtful look. "Choose wisely."

I approached the bag and as I went through it, Matt's words came floating back through my mind. _"As much as I'd love to propose to Sora, I think I'll have to go with your sister…"_ That must mean that he wasn't asking Sora, so she was mine for the courting. Do you know what I mean?

Apparently, she broke up with him the spring of junior year and he never quite got over her. It must be hard, passing up this chance just to keep TK and Davis' friendship alive. (Davis had finally decided that he'd call TK by his actual name and try to be friends; this approach worked.) Then again, Matt has the crest of Friendship, so I guess it's only fitting…

Anyway, I went through the bag, looking at different rings. I chose a nice, simple one. I knew that this was going to be that weird project where you got paired up with a girl and had to pretend you were a married couple for, like, a week or something. Except I had a gut feeling that this would last the whole quarter.

Anyway, let's get back to the reason I picked the ring I did. I knew that Miss Hawthorn would grade us on how much money we spent during the project, and I had a feeling that the rings were going to count under that category. Besides, the ring I picked wouldn't be very expensive in real life, and I'm sure that the girl I "married" would like it anyway.

Miss Hawthorne smiled and said to the others, "He made a nice, practical choice. Here's a box to put it in, hon." She handed me a small navy blue box to put the ring in.

I accepted it, put the ring in, and slipped it into my pocket.

Matt chose something more expensive looking than mine, but not terribly extravagant. He knew Kari well enough to know that it was the sort of thing she'd like.

Davis was an idiot, as usual, and picked the most expensive and fancy ring he could find.

TK rolled his eyes at his friend's stupidity and picked a ring for himself.

After a while, we had all picked rings and hidden them in our pockets (except for Cam, who put his into his wallet because there weren't enough boxes for everyone) and left the stuffy closet.

We did indeed spend the rest of the class getting to know each other, but for me it was pointless, even though I got to know a couple of freshmen and a new sophomore.

After class, once the girls had left the room, we guys lined up in the following order: Greg, Cam, me, Dylan, Matt, Ken, TK, and Davis.

Greg said, "Um, I think I'm going to propose to Yolie. I really like her."

Miss Hawthorne smiled at him. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow, good luck with the girl!"

Greg gave a nervous smile and waited by the door for Matt, Cam, and I.

Cam grinned and said, "I'm going for Mimi. God, is she hot…"

I leaned over the table and said in a low voice, "Don't let Matt know, but I'd like to ask Sora."

Miss Hawthorne nodded. "I won't let him know, but you _do_ understand that he'll find out tomorrow, right?"

I nodded. I knew perfectly well, but I'd rather that Sora was with me when I got beaten up; then she'd know how much I cared about her.

Dylan asked to be paired with Bella and Matt asked to be paired up with Kari.

Davis and TK both swarmed the teacher, shouting the other down for Kari.

"Sorry, boys, but Kari has been taken. The three girls left are Tiffany, Lianne, and Diana."

TK asked for Diana and Davis asked grudgingly for Lianne. Ken was left for Tiffany and us guys left the room and headed to class.

000

STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER:

"WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME TO DINNER?"

000

**How was that? This is just something that I've been doing in my spare time, but I like the way it's going.**

**I'll update soon!**

**-BANDGEEK-**


	2. Would You Like To Come To Dinner?

**Hola people! I think this story is going to move much faster than any of my others (knock on wood). The only reason I didn't update quickly was because I went on vacation. Ah, vacation… the beach… ice cream… mannequins in the artsy-fartsy section of the city that wear nothing but underwear and aprons… wolves that I named Seth (like Seth Clearwater from the Twilight books)… drooling over Robert Pattinson when he was in Harry Potter… the usual stuff.**

**Anywho, I had a terrific time on the coast. The waves weren't big, but I got some tanning done, so… YEAH ME!!**

**Um… so yeah. I watched "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" twice each on TV. It was great – my friend and I were like, "OMC! ROBERT PATTINSON!" and the funny thing was, we were on the phone with her boyfriend at the time and it got all awkward… so… yeah…**

**The Deimon Commander From Hell: (mutters) Freaks…**

**BG99: Perdone?**

**TDCFH: Um, nothing?**

**BG99: (clicks fingers)**

**Guard Dogs: (appear in front of BG)**

**TDCFH: Aw, crud. (gulps)**

**BG99: Go get him, boys!**

**Guard Dogs: (chase TDCFH and steal his Devil's Handbook, ripping it to shreds)**

**BG99: HA! Now who's on top? (does pose on top of piano)**

**TDCFH: (who must be several inches taller) I always have a copy. So I'm on top. (stands on piano, taller than BG. Opens spare Devil's Handbook) Now, let's see…**

**BG99: Crap.**

**KENNY: (ignoring the author fight in background) So let's get back to the wonderful class of Home Ec., which this story revolves around. Enjoy!**

**I own nothing that you recognize!! So don't sue!!**

**000**

"Girls just wanna have fu-un!" Sora sang along to her iPod as she went to the bus stop. She still had to wait five minutes for the 2:30 shuttle to her apartment complex.

All of a sudden, her butt started vibrating. "Huh?" she reached over and pulled her cell phone out. Tai was calling. She paused her music and picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Sor, it's me. What's going on?"

"Waiting for the bus, why?"

"Want me to give you a ride home? I can see you from where I'm parked."

Sora glanced across the street and saw his Montero standing idle, Tai in the driver's seat (duh).

"Sure, I'll be right there!"

She danced across the street and climbed into his front seat, taking in the fresh, outdoorsy smell of his air freshener. "Thanks for giving me a lift, Tai, I really appreciate it."

He grinned his trademark grin before putting the car in gear and driving down the street. "Not a problem." He flipped on the radio and the song "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse came on. He bobbed his head to the beat for a while, mulling over whether to ask her out now or later in his head. He decided that now would be as good a time as any.

"H-hey, um, Sora?"

"Mm?" she asked, looking out the window.

"Um, do you wanna, I don't know, meet me for dinner tonight? Maybe catch a movie?"

Sora looked at him, not believing what she was hearing. Was he… asking her out? "Huh?"

"Never mind," he said, blushing and looking at the road with great intent.

"No, um, I mean, sure. Um, er, what time?" she asked, now feeling like an idiot.

"Seven-ish? I'll pick you up."

"Sure, that sounds good."

The two sat in a bit of an awkward silence until Tai reached the front of her building. "I'll pick you up tonight, then."

She smiled at him. "Okay, sounds good!"

"Cool."

They exchanged waves and Tai drove off, turning up the radio so that the bass beat of "Low" carried, even after he was gone.

Sora smiled and squealed with joy, all the way up to her apartment. She shoved open the door, dropped her bag, and screamed, "Whoo-hoo!" at the top of her lungs.

Her mother's head popped out of her room. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Sora said, though from the look on her face and her drifty voice, she knew it wasn't "nothing".

"Come on, Sora, sweetie, you can tell me," her mother insisted, approaching her daughter.

"The guy I like asked me out today!" she squealed, grinning up at her mom.

"That's great, sweetheart," she said earnestly with a smile. "Just as long as you do your homework, I won't bug him tonight!"

"That's what I was hoping for," Sora laughed and reached into her bag for her binders.

000

Matt sat in his crappy old sedan and listened to his voice messages.

"_Hey, it's TK, um, I was just reminding you that you need to give me a ride to Ken's tonight for our science project at about 5-ish, Mom said she'd pick me up, so… yeah. Give me a call back later. Thanks. Bye."_

Matt groaned. He had forgotten all about that.

"_Hey, brotha! What's going on, dude? Are ya gonna come to band practice or not tonight? You keep beatin' around the bush! Just give us an answer, wouldja? Oh, by the way, this is Keiichiro. Call me back, brotha!"_

Keiichiro, Matt's band mate, left three more messages and Matt decided to do him the favor of calling back, saying he probably couldn't be there.

"_Hey, Yamato! Don't you ever pick up your phone? (giggle giggle) Anyway, it's me, Kari. Tai told me you wanted to talk to me? Please give me a call back when you get the chance. Bye."_

Matt called Kari right back.

"Hello, Kamiya residence, this is Hikari speaking."

"Hey, Kari, it's Matt."

"Hey, Matt! What do you wanna talk to me about?"

Matt's face turned a light shade of pink. "Um, well…"

"What's that?"

"I was kinda hoping you'd come see a movie with me tonight or something? And then, I don't know, dinner?"

Kari was silent on the other line.

"Sorry, you know what? Forget it."

"No, no that's not what I meant! I was just wondering why you were asking me and not, like, that Bella girl or something."

"No. Um, it's just that, well, since you're kind of on-and-off with my brother, I figured I'd get to know you better." Matt hoped his lie would pass.

It did. "Sure. What time?"

"Six?"

"Okay. I'll see you then!"

"Bye."

"Bye."

Matt flipped his phone shut and sighed with relief. Now that he'd gotten that off his chest, he could drive home in peace.

000

"_And I saw God cry in the reflection of my enemies  
And all the lovers with no time for me  
And all of the mothers raise their babies  
To stay away from me."_

The Fall Out Boy ballad gushed from the speakers of Sora's iHome.

She pulled on a yellow spaghetti-strap tank top and pulled a brown sweatshirt over it along with her favorite pair of dark wash Levi's. She pulled her hair back, then thought better of it and left it down. She made sure she had everything – iPod, cell phone, money, socks… No, she needed to find socks.

After finding the elusive polka dot socks, she put them on and slipped her Etnies over them.

Finally, seven o' clock rolled around and the doorbell rang.

She whipped open the door and there was Tai, in all his bushy haired glory. "Hey."

"Hi. Ready to go?" he asked, holding out his hand.

"Yeah."

The two teenagers left the complex and got into Tai's SUV.

They ended up seeing "The Mummy: Return of the Dragon Emperor". Sora thought it lived up to the first ones, but Tai disagreed. They left the theater arguing, and by the time they pulled into the 99's parking lot, they hadn't given up.

"I'm telling you, it was just as good!"

"You've gotta be kidding!"

The hostess looked at them. "Um, table for two?"

They both looked at her.

"Um, yes, please," Sora said.

The hostess picked up two menus and led them to a booth.

"I'm telling you, the others were better," Tai muttered as he examined the menu. His face lit up when he saw the burgers. "Mm, beef!"

Sora couldn't help but laugh. One minute he was totally pissed, the next he was happy. That was one of the many things that she loved about him.

"Sora? Hello? Earth to Sora?"

"Huh?" Sora snapped back to the real world.

Tai was looking at her with a concerned face. "Do you feel okay? You kinda drifted into your own little world there."

She blushed. "Sorry."

They talked for a while of unimportant things until Tai said, "Hey, Sora?"

"Hm?"

"You're my best friend, right?"

"Best friends till the end!"

Tai smiled and shook his head. The opportunity to quote a song by Pete Wentz was too great. "Best friends? Ex-friends till the end. Better off as lovers and not the other way around."

"What?" Sora's brown furrowed in confusion.

"Nothing. I just thought it would be appropriate, given the circumstances…" He suddenly became interested in the lights.

"What?"

He snapped back to earth. "Oh. Right. Well, um, I was going to ask you if you would be my home ec. partner?"

"Sure."

He handed her the ring and she stared at it for a second before realizing what it meant. "Oh, my God," she murmured and took it in her trembling hands.

"You don't want to be my quote-unquote wife, do you." It wasn't a question.

"No, that's not it; I just had no idea that the project would be… this."

"Yeah, apparently our teacher has some interesting ideas when it comes to teaching," Tai said quickly, still blushing madly.

Sora looked up at him and smiled. "I'd still like to be your home ec. partner."

"Thanks, Sor."

They smiled at each other and continued eating until Sora reached over and snatched a handful of fries from her friend's plate.

He glared at her. "Why did you steal my French fries? Those are _my_ French fries. Give them back."

She smiled at him as she dumped salt on them and shoved them all into her mouth at once, then grinning at him with a full mouth. "Ha!"

He glared at her and didn't say anything till she'd finished chewing and swallowing (which took a while, to be honest…) before saying, "Well, since I can't have my fries back, I'll take you instead." He stood up and held out his arms, screwing up his face in an attempt to look like Frankenstein. "Fee Fi Fo Fum…"

Sora laughed at the stupidity and allowed him to slide into the booth next to her and hug her.

When he dropped her off in front of her apartment, she was very sad to leave. "Thanks, Tai. I had a great night."

"Yeah. Me, too. I'll see you tomorrow at school, right?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yeah. Bye!"

"Bye!" He drove off with a grin on his face, as if to say, "mission accomplished."

Sora sighed with happiness at the memory of the evening and walked in sort of dreamily to her apartment.

"So how'd it go?" Mrs. Takenouchi asked over her coffee cup and romance novel.

"It went great," Sora sighed.

"What's that on your hand?"

"Huh?" Sora looked down at her hands. She'd forgotten she'd put the ring on her right ring finger. "Oh… yeah. That. Long story."

"I've got time," Mrs. Takenouchi put her book down.

"I can't really explain. Maybe later. I'm going to bed." Sora dropped her purse on the table and went to her room, anxious for school to start.

000

Matt shakily raised his hand to Kari's family's doorbell. In his hand was a rose and on his face was panic.

She answered after a minute or two and boy, did she look good. _"No. Tai's sister. Only a friend. I cannot think she's hot. No! Bad brain!"_ He silently scolded himself.

She was still short with short brown hair, but instead of being clipped to the side, they were pulled up and clipped on the top of her head with a pink barrette. She had on a yellow top that said "My Parents Think I'm Studying" and a black skirt with chunky heels. "Hi, Matt," she said with a smile.

"_Oh, shit, she's wearing eye shadow and mascara and eye liner… the whole deal. Tai's gonna kill me after tonight if I can't control myself."_ Matt smiled and said, "Hi," hiding his inner thoughts. "So… ready to go?" He handed her the rose and held out his hand.

"Yep. Thanks for the flower," she smiled sort of shyly and took his hand.

"What movie do you want to see?" he asked.

"How about 'Dark Knight'? Tai went and saw that and he's so mad that I haven't seen it yet. He said it was really good."

Matt shrugged. "Sure. Sounds good."

They hopped into his sedan and drove to the nearest theater, where they saw "Dark Knight" was playing in only fifteen minutes.

Matt parallel parked and the couple went inside, bought tickets and candy, and sat down just as the previews started.

At a rather frightening part in the movie Kari squealed and jumped, grabbing Matt's middle rather tightly.

He blushed and didn't move (not that he could in her death trap) until she let go. "Are you done attacking me now?" he whispered.

She nodded, a couple of stray tears running down her cheek. "That was so scary!"

Instinctively, Matt picked up a napkin and wiped away Kari's tears. "It's over now, so you don't need to be scared, kay?"

She nodded, her mouth still pushed down at the corners in a frown.

Matt gave her a small, comforting hug and then put his attention back to the movie.

Later, they stopped at the local diner for dinner.

Kari slid into a seat at the counter and ordered a strawberry milkshake and Matt got a Pepsi. They ordered food and sat in a comfortable silence for a while.

"Thanks, Matt," Kari said suddenly. "I'm having a really good night so far."

He smiled. "It's not a problem, not at all."

They started talking about casually about things such as their favorite bands, movies they liked, actors they liked, books, pop culture…

Matt found it interesting that they both liked peanut butter on their popcorn, they both enjoyed listening to Postal Service, and they both used to play piano, along with many other things they had in common.

When they were in the middle of ice cream, Matt suddenly remembered why he took her out that night. Home Ec. project! He mentally slapped himself. He fumbled in the pocket of his jacket and found what he was looking for – the tiny little blue box. He looked back up. "Hey, Kari? This is going to sound really awkward, but I was wondering…" He opened the box and slid it to her over the counter. "Would you like to be my partner for Home Ec?"

She looked at the ring, then Matt, then the ring, then Matt. She looked at the fair-haired boy long and hard before finally peeping out a "Sure."

He smiled encouragingly and she smiled back, after a moment.

"And I promise I won't get between you and any other guy you might like," Matt said, holding his hands up.

Kari smiled wider. "Thanks."

They smiled at each other (jeez, there's a lot of smiling in this story!) and they left the diner, Kari's ring on her right hand.

**000**

**TDCFH: (sniffs while eating out of huge tub of cookie dough ice cream, mutters) That… was… beautiful… (smiles weakly)**

**BG99: (snaps photos) Hah… Getting blackmail is fun!**

**TDCFH: (notices) Huh? WHAT THE HELL?! (chases BG99, tries pulling off her shoes)**

**BG99: DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY CHUNKY HEELS, DAMMIT! AND IF YOU GET BLACKMAIL ON ME, WHY CAN'T I GET BLACKMAIL ON YOU?!**

**TDCGH: Are you freaking serious?! CUZ I'M THE GOD DAMN DEIMON COMMANDER FROM HELL!**

**The Fight: (goes on)**

**Make an author happy (coughmecough) and review!**

**--BANDGEEK--**


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